Does Outlook have to be running for the alarms to work?

[Joe Busfield]

Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to work?
It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you probably have
an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in Task Manager.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:

| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to
| work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?

 

[CMM]

Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray applet for
the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of useless stuff
(RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update Checkers, resource hogs)
in there.

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what you want.
It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of Outlook loaded and
hidden in the background... even if you close the Outlook window. You get
new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of stuff.

P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I find
myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it to stay
loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray applet behaves
this way.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

 

[CMM]

Oh yeah. The applet is free.

Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray applet
for the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of useless stuff
(RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update Checkers, resource hogs)
in there.

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what you
want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of Outlook
loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the Outlook
window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of stuff.

P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I find
myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it to stay
loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray applet
behaves this way.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you probably
have
an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in Task Manager.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:

| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to
| work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

I prefer a program to work as designed.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, CMM asked:

| Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray
| applet for the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of
| useless stuff (RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update
| Checkers, resource hogs) in there.
|
| Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what
| you want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of
| Outlook loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the
| Outlook window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of
| stuff.
|
| P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I
| find myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it
| to stay loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray
| applet behaves this way.
|
| "Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
| || Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you
|| probably have an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in
|| Task Manager.
||
|| --
|| Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]
||
|| Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
|| unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
|| reading.
||
|| After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:
||
||| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function
||| to work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for
||| alarms?

 

[CMM]

- When I close the Yahoo Messenger window it gives me a "tip" that it's
still in the tray. Cool.
- Same when I close Windows Messenger. Again, the tray icon represents a
*tool* not a "window."
- Same for almost all "tray applets." Close the Volume window?... yup volume
icon still in the tray. Nice!

Close Outlook window? GONE! But, dumb me for expecting otherwise.

Yes, Outlook's design in this regard is BAD DESIGN since "*Minimize* to
tray" (note the astericks) is not a standard Windows facet... I mean, where
the tray replicates the functionality of the taskbar "minimuzed" buttons.
The Outlook icon in the tray should be a TOOL- independent from the main
Outlook "explorer" window.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

 

[Brian Tillman]

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what
you want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of
Outlook loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the
Outlook window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of
stuff.

You also get the potential for message store corruption. Anything that
keeps the PST open can lead to that in the event of a system issue.

 

[Brian Tillman]

- When I close the Yahoo Messenger window it gives me a "tip" that
it's still in the tray. Cool.
- Same when I close Windows Messenger. Again, the tray icon
represents a *tool* not a "window."

The problem I have with that is the overloading of the Close button in the
window dressing. I'm a believer in the notion that a button that purports
to perform a function should ALWAYS perform that function identically in
every application that includes it in its presentation.

- Same for almost all "tray applets." Close the Volume window?... yup
volume icon still in the tray. Nice!

ActiveSync is the same way. The only thing I can say in defense of
applications like this are that it makes a kind of sense for the ones that
are _services_ to behave that way, but not for foreground applications.

 

[Mark R Penn]

I don't suggest buying one just for this, but if you have a Pocket PC,
keeping it in the cradle will keep Outlook running as a process too.

I agree that there should be an Outlook service that can be kept running
constantly, so that the full app doesn't have to be open. The service should
(optionally) check new mail, and give alarms/reminders. It seams ludicrous
to me that a user has to keep OL running to get reminders - what if I forget
to start it because I couldn't see the reminder to start OL

On the assumption that a reminder, by it's nature, could go off at any time,
the argument that having a service running constantly could lead to pst file
corruption is moot - if I need the reminders, I need OL running anyway, so a
service is no more of a risk. Likewise if I need to know about new mail as
it arrives, I have to keep OL running too.

If ever there was an app that needs a service, it's Outlook.

Mark

Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray applet
for the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of useless stuff
(RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update Checkers, resource hogs)
in there.

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what you
want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of Outlook
loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the Outlook
window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of stuff.

P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I find
myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it to stay
loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray applet
behaves this way.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you probably
have
an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in Task Manager.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:

| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to
| work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?

 

[CMM]

Again, Outlook Loader does that. Not plugging my little creation (it's
free).... but it works exactly as you described.
http://www.cflashsoft.com/olload.htm

I don't suggest buying one just for this, but if you have a Pocket PC,
keeping it in the cradle will keep Outlook running as a process too.

I agree that there should be an Outlook service that can be kept running
constantly, so that the full app doesn't have to be open. The service
should (optionally) check new mail, and give alarms/reminders. It seams
ludicrous to me that a user has to keep OL running to get reminders - what
if I forget to start it because I couldn't see the reminder to start OL

On the assumption that a reminder, by it's nature, could go off at any
time, the argument that having a service running constantly could lead to
pst file corruption is moot - if I need the reminders, I need OL running
anyway, so a service is no more of a risk. Likewise if I need to know
about new mail as it arrives, I have to keep OL running too.

If ever there was an app that needs a service, it's Outlook.

Mark

Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray applet
for the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of useless stuff
(RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update Checkers, resource
hogs) in there.

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what you
want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of Outlook
loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the Outlook
window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of stuff.

P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I find
myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it to stay
loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray applet
behaves this way.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"

Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you probably
have
an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in Task Manager.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:

| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to
| work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?

 

[CMM]

Close buttons close windows not entire applications (some apps violate
this... like Excel... even when they pretend to not be MDI). Tray applets
are notification services. The standard that has developed to close them is
to right click on their icon and choose "Exit."

 

[Mark R Penn]

No no no - you should plug it! Yet again a third party developer has to make
up for MS's lack of basic common sense! They seem able to get the big things
right, but often lose touch with what the day to day user would find handy
(especially if, God forbid, he happens NOT to work for a huge corporation).

Mark

Again, Outlook Loader does that. Not plugging my little creation (it's
free).... but it works exactly as you described.
http://www.cflashsoft.com/olload.htm

I don't suggest buying one just for this, but if you have a Pocket PC,
keeping it in the cradle will keep Outlook running as a process too.

I agree that there should be an Outlook service that can be kept running
constantly, so that the full app doesn't have to be open. The service
should (optionally) check new mail, and give alarms/reminders. It seams
ludicrous to me that a user has to keep OL running to get reminders -
what if I forget to start it because I couldn't see the reminder to start
OL

On the assumption that a reminder, by it's nature, could go off at any
time, the argument that having a service running constantly could lead to
pst file corruption is moot - if I need the reminders, I need OL running
anyway, so a service is no more of a risk. Likewise if I need to know
about new mail as it arrives, I have to keep OL running too.

If ever there was an app that needs a service, it's Outlook.

Mark

Outlook- the one program that NEEDS it- would benefit from a tray applet
for the last 10 years. Instead, Windows users get a slew of useless
stuff (RealPlayer, QuickTime, reinvent-the-wheel Update Checkers,
resource hogs) in there.

Check out Outlook Loader at http://www.cflashsoft.com it does what you
want. It accomplishes what it does by keeping an instance of Outlook
loaded and hidden in the background... even if you close the Outlook
window. You get new email alerts, task alerts, and a bunch of stuff.

P.S. The Outlook 2003 "minimize to tray" thing is fairly stupid. I find
myself closing the Outlook window all the time... but, expect it to stay
loaded in the tray. My bad... it's not like EVERY other tray applet
behaves this way.

"Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]"
Yes, it must be open to work. If you getting reminders, you probably
have
an instance of outlook.exe still active. Check in Task Manager.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. All
unsolicited mail sent to my personal account will be deleted without
reading.

After furious head scratching, Joe Busfield asked:

| Does Outlook have to be running (minimized) for the alarm function to
| work? It seems to on my computer. No resident watchdog for alarms?